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Unfortunately AHS is notoriously difficult to get in to unless you know someone/have connections somehow. I've heard that a lot of managers do not like it when you show up on the unit unannounced - a friend of mine tried this one day and left a few units crying because some of the unit clerks were so rude and wouldn't even let her see the manager or leave her resume. I think the best way to do it, other than to just keep applying online, is to send the unit manager an email with your resume - that's how I got my most recent job with AHS. If you can find out their name, then their email is usually the standard [email protected]. I'm not sure how easy it is to find out their names unless you are internal, but if you know someone who works with AHS then they can look up the organizational charts and let you know. Also, if you're willing to work a little bit outside of the city, then rural hospitals are usually more open to having you walk in and chat with the managers. Black Diamond seems to have a few postings on the site right now, might not be a bad way to at least get into AHS, and then you'll have a much easier time finding a job in the city. Hope you get something soon!

I just finished the U of C program, so I can tell ya a lil bit about textbooks.. the main ones you should really buy are Fundamentals and the Jarvis assessment, those are used throughout the entire program. You should buy the APA manual because they are huuuge sticklers about APA (seriously can't stress that enough, it was a nightmare). Buy NIC and NOC, they'll be helpful throughout the program, especially when you have to make care plans - which honestly isn't as often as I thought it would be, but these books are still good to have. If you're hurting for cash, you can maybe get away without these though and just finding the info online. I never once used the Ethics in Canadian Nursing textbook, so don't really recommend that. Canadian Community as Partner you will only use this term, so try finding a used one on kijiji, I can almost guarantee that the edition change won't matter, and then I recommend you sell it again after term 3 cause you're never gonna touch it again. Same goes for Community Health Nursing. Also as a side note, they recently changed the uniform policy so you don't have to wear white shoes anymore. Not sure if they've changed that in the handbook or not, but it makes shoe shopping much easier. Congrats guys and enjoy!

Hi Senzen, U of C uses letter grades to calculate GPA, so even though my university's letter-to-GPA conversion didn't match U of C's, that's what they used. An A or A+ both count as 4.0, A- as 3.7, and so on.. You can probably find it somewhere on the university's website. You could definitely have a job during the first 2 semesters, but terms 5 and 6 (year 3 of the program) are by far the hardest in the program, and while I know people who kept jobs, I wouldn't recommend it, just based on the amount of studying you have to do. Yes, the final term is just practicum, and you can go out of province for it. There is a weekly on-campus meeting, but if you go out of province you just do something online with the other people who went out of province. They do say it's hard to find practicums in large cities like Vancouver and Toronto though... Good luck!

U of C doesn't look at anything other than the GPA you get in your most recent 10 half credits, so your current GPA doesn't even matter. If you do end up getting a 3.8 then I'd say you have a really good chance of getting in. I've heard the cutoff can go as low as 3.4/3.5 some years. I went about it in a pretty similar way to you... was half way through a degree that I hated, had pretty bad grades, and decided to go into nursing, but I needed A&P to apply... I took that course and the rest of the ones I was in had nothing to do with my degree, but were things that I was interested in. Got really good grades because I was actually interested in the material and got into U of C no problem. So I'm sure it can happen for you too! Good luck :)

Depending on who you have for 285, there is one textbook that I never used. If the professor is still ****, then she has a textbook (pretty sure it's called "Older Adults") that she says is necessary for the course but I think I cracked that guy open maaaaaybe once and it wasn't useful at all. Just find someone that has it and photocopy the 3 or 4 pages she assigns from that text. Biggest waste of money ever. The rest you will probably use, some certainly more than others and most of the community-based textbooks will only be used in term 3 (unless you take a community focus in later classes, I guess, but then you may not use the same textbooks). The Fundamentals, physical assessment, NIC, NOC, and mental health textbooks you will use throughout the program so I would suggest buying new copies if you can't find any used ones in the second hand store. I think buying new copies gives you access to some online content that is useful for studying, so keep that in mind. As for the rest of them, I would try and find them on craigslist or kijiji, because you'll use them for term 3 and then never again. And good luck!! It's definitely a bit scary starting out but they really do ease you into everything. The orientation day is really fun and you'll get to know your practical course instructor and your group pretty well by the end of the day. Have fun!

Honestly, the wait to find out is the worst, and it seems U of C admissions is a little disorganized when it comes to this stuff. I waited for a long time with no change on my status in the student centre, and finally decided I'd just call and see what was going on when the nursing department actually called me and asked why I wasn't just going to finish my other degree since I was 3 years into it, and then apply to the degree holder route. I told them I didn't want to do that and the woman just said "ok" and that day I was accepted. It was very strange. Sooo basically be prepared to wait and don't worry about calling in and being a pain because that might be all it takes to get them to actually let you know you've been accepted! The program itself is great, they really ease you into it. First semester is community, and you have zero contact with patients. You don't even need to buy scrubs for this semester because you will not use them. Personally, I didn't find first semester to be very challenging and it wasn't what I was hoping to be doing in terms of nursing, but I know a few people who really enjoyed the community aspect, and it was a nice way to learn some skills without being thrown right into things. Second semester is family through the life-span, and most people I believe had clinical placements in long-term care, so you do get hands-on patient experience, but still no hospital acute-care stuff. I'll be in the hospital for the first time this September! I found second semester to be much harder in terms of lecture content and testing, but the practical aspects were quite simple.. we learned how to do the job of healthcare aides, basically.

Might not be a bad idea to contact admissions and just ask them whether they will accept your language arts course. Send them an email with the course description and maybe the syllabus if you can still get hold of that. I doubt the humanities courses would transfer over as English courses, but you do only need 3 credits worth, so hopefully the other one will be fine! Actually now that I checked the admission requirements again, your humanities courses will count towards your arts credits.

Hi tparno, I'm a current U of C nursing student.. I transferred into the September 2014 intake and just finished year 2 of the program in April. I know exactly how frustrating it is being in your position so feel free to ask me any questions about the application process or the program itself (I'll try and answer to the best of my ability but I've only done terms 3 and 4 so can't give you any info beyond that). Best of luck!

Hey everyone...Have people started applying yet? I need someone to tell me that I'm not going crazy - when I first opened the additional form for the application, there were multiple sections such as 'personal strengths' etc, but having opened it again today there is now only 'related experience' and 'related coursework'... did they just update the application or am I really missing something here?